My Country....One BIG Joke!

Anyone who truly knows me would know that I am a light hearted person, I don’t beef people and I never make hasty judgments, so just this once permit me to vent a bit and at our very BIG country. Normally people would refer to their country as great, but not I and not Nigeria thought it is still my country. I have always talked about Nigeria as a place filled with people, citizens that can make it great, but do we? No, we just sit down and talk about the size and the population and how much the system sucks! But as individual do we do anything to make it a sane and decent place to live in, NO! We all sit on our butts and complain. People make a place what it is, and our crazy leaders are a product of our very own society, so the next time you sit with your buddies over a drink and talk trash, ask yourself if you are any better, ask yourself if you would not give those juicy contracts to your best friend even when you know he cannot handle the job properly, ask yourself if you would not create some fictitious and useless position to give to someone as a gift, so that he can have a direct link to the great national cake, if you can honestly say NO to these questions, then we have a future…but if you all think you will bend the rules as well, then it’s about time we stopped acting all high and mighty while doling out criticisms cos we are just as undisciplined as they are.

I was having one of those mornings where the cab driver is complaining about fuel, my colleagues are talking about travelling and all the mad hassles we will be getting at the various international airports this period (all thanks to Mutallab and his crazy plot!) and generally, we are all wondering if Mr President is alive or if the BBC interview was done by his AVATAR as a buddy of mine posted on facebook, funny as this sounded to me, I realized one thing, we have become a huge joke to other nations, and the sad part is we do not even know it. And nothing is as pathetic as a situation where the joke is on you and you laugh along, too dumb to realize that you are actually being ridiculed!

What other country do you have a president in absentia, and no one can actually come forward to say what Is wrong? Truth be told, as a president, the day you decide to take that office, you stop being your own person, you become accountable in many ways to your citizenry because your life and death affects those you govern. I am so saddened by the way this year is actually starting and the way the last year ended for this country, terrorism and poor government.

Okay, I know we are used to having crappy government sad as it may seem, but terrorism! That’s definitely new on our radar. Now when it comes to international crimes, we have it all, we represent! At airports Nigerians were treated like criminals, now we have added another feather of crime to our vile hat of indiscipline…just given others another reason to treat us like dirt. My heart really bleeds for this nation, because in so many ways we have come to accept certain mediocrities as the norm, and we boast about them, a people that sees nothing wrong in vile and corrupt practices is definitely not on the verge of change, because to make a change, you have to first realize that a change is needed, you have to realize as well that the change starts with you, your perception and your ability to discern what is good and what is not, because after having several conversations with my fellow countrymen, it is sad to say we have lost the path and we need a miracle to get us back on track.

I’ll leave you with this line from Michael Jackson : START WITH THE MAN IN THE MIRROR.